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J. H. WOOD'WARD. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NITTING SAME.

No. 500,700. Patented July 4, 1893. 0

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES HENRY WOODWVARD, OF NOTTINGHABLENGLAND.

STOCKING AND METHOD OF KNITTING SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 500,700, dated July 4, 1893.

Application filed January 6, 1893.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES HENRY WOOD- WARD, hosiery-machinist, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at LeeWorks, Nottingham, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stockings and Methods of Knitting the Same, of which the following is a specification.

According to my invention I construct hose and half-hose or socks in the following manner whereby they can be made without taking the fabric or any portion of the fabric oif the needles until the formation of the piece of work is completed. A flat piece of work is first made with a selvage along each side edge upon a row or division of needles either fashioned or not along the side edges as may be desired. lVhen the leg portion has been completed work is continued at the two ends of the row or division of needles while the production of work on the middle or instep portion of the division is arrested a greater and greater number of courses of work being produced upon the needles which are farther and farther away from the center of the division-the greatest number of courses of work being produced upon the outermost needles. In this way an arched piece of work is produced upon each end section of the division of needles coming to a point at the innermost needle of each of the end sections of the division of needles. These pieces of work are to form the heel. Afterward work is continued across the whole division of needles and a flat selvaged piece of work is produced for forming the foot. The too may be formed in any ordinary way or may be formed in a similar way to the heel. The shape of the heel and toe pieces may if desired be modified by forming widenings and narrowings along their outer edges. The piece of work produced in the above manner is afterward doubled over along its longitudinal central line and its edges are sewed together to complete its formation into a stocking or sock or half-hose.

The above described piece of work may be produced upon rows or divisions of needles, either upon circular or straight bar knitting machines.

The drawings annexed show a sock formed Serial No. 457,438. (No model.)

in the above manner and various views of the piece of work from which it is made.

Figure 1 is a plan view of the pieceof work. Fig. 2 is an end view and Fig. 3 a side View of the same. Fig. 4 is a plan view on a larger scale of some of the parts of the piece of work. The upper portion of the figure shows the lower part of the leg and the heel pieces. The lower portion of the figure shows the foot and toe end pieces. Fig. 5 shows the piece of work doubled over along its longitudinal central line, and Fig. 6 shows the completed toe end when the sock has been sewed up and flattened.

On a straight bar knitting machine with bearded needles and having its presser bar divided at the centerinto two sections which can be moved toward or away from one another such a piece of work can be made in the following manner: While the leg piece a is being formed the two sections of the presser are made to abut together end to end so that the presser then acts upon all the needles and work is produced by a thread or threads laid to and fro across the row or division of needles by a single thread layer in the ordinary manner. When the leg piece is finished the sections of the presser are moved away from one another so that the needles at the middle or instep portion of the division of needles between the points 0 d (see Fig. 4:) are left without any presser to act upon them and they remain idle with loops of work still upon them. At the same time two thread layers are brought into action, one to be traversed to and fro over one end section b, c, of the needles and the otherover the end section d, e. As the work progresses on the end sections of the needles the two sections of the presser are gradually moved outward away from one another so that the needles Which are the nearer to the central section 0, (1, go out of action one after the other until only a few of the outermost needles remain in work. For example, supposing there were thirty needles between the points 61 and e, the needle at the point (1 being numbered 1,.and the needle at the point e numbered 30 -the first course might be made on needles 2 to 30, (the needle I retaining the loop,) the next on needles 3 to 30, (needles 1 and 2 retaining their loops) and so on, until the length of the course of work is only upon needles say 27 to 30. After that, a course may be made along the needle from 30 to l, and the courses again gradually shortened as indicated by the parallel lines drawn over the heel pieces in the upper half of Fig.

4. In this way a triangular piece of work is produced upon each end section of the needles. Or these triangular pieces might be Worked in the reverse way commencing by making the shorter courses and gradually lengthening them. Preferably I now bring the two sections of the presser together end to end and form say two courses of work with asingle thread layer across the whole division of the needles. Afterward the sections of the presser are separated as before and another triangular piece of work formed in the same way as before on the outer sections of the needles. The edges 0 f and cl g of these pieces of work will then be on the end sections of the row of needles. The two sections of the presser are now again made to abut together end to end. One of the thread layers is put out of action and the other made to traverse to and fro across the whole of the needles and a flat piece of work his produced for forming the foot.

When the foot piece has been completed the toe may as before stated he made in any suitable known way or it may be made by forming two segments of work '6 on the two end sections of the needles just in the same way as when forming the heel pieces.

The piece of work produced in the above manner is afterward doubled over along its longitudinal central line and its edges are sewed together, the seam running down the back of the leg and heel from 1 to 2, in Fig. 5, and underneath the foot from 2 to 3 and from 3 to N. When the toe end has been formed in the way shown in that figure, the edge M N (see Fig. 5) of each segment is also sewed to the edge M 0 after the knitting of the stocking has been completed. The finished toe is shown at Fig. 6.

As before stated the piece of work may be narrowed and widened wherever desired by point mechanism in the ordinary way for shaping the leg or foot or heel or toe pieces.

In place of a presser divided into two sections being used to produce the piece of work in the above described way an ordinary presser bar may be used and those needles which are for a time to remain out of action may by other pressers acting against their stems be held back so as to keep their beards from coming against and being closed by the ordinary presser bar.

What I claim is- 1. A stocking or sock or half-hose, formed of one piece of work doubled over along its longitudinal central line, and scanned together along the edges at the side, and toe end, the leg portion of such piece of work being a fiat piece, the heel portion being two side continuations of the leg piece each formed of lines or rows of work of varying length,all of which extend to the outer side edge of the piece of work, and the foot and toe portion being a flat piece of work, substantially as described.

2. A stocking or sock or half-hose formed of one piece of work, doubled over along its longitudinal central line and seamed together along its edges at the sides and toe end, the leg portion of such piece of work being a flat piece, the heel portion being two side continuations of the leg piece, each formedof lines or rows of work of varying length, all of which extend to the outer side edge of the piece of work, the foot portion being a flat piece of work, and the toe portion formed of two side continuations made in the same way as the two side pieces for the heel, substantially as described.

3. The herein-described method of manufacturing on a straight-bar knitting machine a piece of knitted work for forming the leg, heel and the foot of a stocking or sock or halfhose, which consists in forming a fiat piece of work for the leg in the ordinary way, then for a time putting out of action a central section of the needles, and forming on the two end sections a number of courses of work of varying length extending inward from the two side edges and thereby producing on each of the two end sections a segment of work large enough to form one-half of the heel, and afterward again bringing into action all needles, and forming a flat piece of work for the foot, and finally forming the toe.

JAMES HENRY \VOODWVARD. 

